Daniel S. Goldberg Telesat President & Chief Executive Officer April 17, 2009 Leonard St-Aubin Director General Telecommunications Policy Branch Industry Canada 16th Floor, 300 Slater Street Ottawa, ON K1A0C8 Re: DGTP-003-08 - Consultation Paper on the Possible Use of the Extended Ku Spectrum Bands for Direct-to-Home (DTH) Satellite Broadcasting Services Dear Mr. St-Aubin: Telesat is pleased to submit its comments on the consultation paper on the possible use of the Extended Ku bands for DTH satellite broadcasting services. The use of the Extended Ku bands for DTH broadcasting is critical to the maintenance of a competitive multi-channel video distribution market in Canada and to the advancement of important public policy objectives. Telesat urges Industry Canada to effect the policy changes to accommodate the provisioning of DTH services in the Extended Ku bands and to support the orderly transition of the few (425) Fixed Service transmitters currently operating in that band to other candidate bands. Expeditious approval of this proposed change in policy will permit Telesat to immediately commence the construction and investment in a new Extended Ku band satellite valued at several hundred million dollars. Should the department require further information regarding this Gazette Notice response, please contact: Ms. Michele Beck Director Engineering Telesat Tel: 613-748-8700 ext. 2757 E-mail: mbeck(S)telesat.com 1601 Telesat Court, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1B 5P4 Tel: +1-613-748-8744 Fax: +1-613-748-8804 Email: [email protected] Leonard St-Aubin Page 2 April 17,2009 Telesat Canada claims confidentiality with respect to the contents of Appendix 4 and Appendix 5 of this submission. These documents contain sensitive commercial and technical information, the disclosure of which could reasonably be expected to confer a competitive advantage on other parties and prejudice Telesat's commercial interests. Telesat claims all protection available under the Access to Information Act. Telesat is providing an abridged version of Appendix 4 and 5 for public disclosure. Respectfully submitted, >aniel S. Goldberg enclosure Telesat Canada Comments submitted to Industry Canada Spectrum Management and Telecommunications on Consultation Paper on the Possible Use of the Extended-Ku Spectrum Bands for Direct-to-Home (DTH) Satellite Broadcasting Services (DGTP-003-08, issued December 2008) ABRIDGED April 17, 2009 Telesat Canada 1601 Telesat Court Ottawa, ON K1B 5P4 613-748-8700 Executive Summary Telesat submits that Industry Canada’s spectrum utilization policies should be changed to accommodate the provisioning of Direct to Home (“DTH”) services in the Extended Ku (“xKu”) frequency band and to facilitate the orderly transition of existing Fixed Service (“FS”) users currently transmitting in the xKu band to the remaining portions of the 11 GHz band or to other bands and transmission modes. The Canadian broadcasting system urgently requires more satellite DTH and broadcast signal delivery capacity in order to implement key Canadian broadcasting policies, including: expansion of advanced video services, such as High Definition video, Pay-per-View and Video-on-Demand services by Star Choice and its affiliated SBS Broadcast Delivery Service (which provide TV signals on the same satellite platform to nearly one million direct subscribers and another 2,000 cable systems throughout Canada, many in rural and underserved areas); distribution to all Canadians of the Canadian television signals mandated by the CRTC’s recent Broadcast Distribution Undertaking (“BDU”) Framework decision; maintenance of a robust competitive multi-channel video distribution market by ensuring Star Choice has adequate capacity to compete with Bell TV, with terrestrial cable services and with grey-market U.S. DTH services, Internet broadcasting services and other media that do not provide adequate (or any) access to Canadian programming; and meeting the Broadcasting Act’s requirement for the efficient delivery of programming using effective technologies by providing for backup capacity so that, in case of satellite service interruption, the delivery of Canadian television programming services is not interrupted for a lengthy period or for a significant proportion of the Canadian public. To remain competitive in the multi-channel video services market and, in particular, relative to the other leading Canadian DTH provider, Star Choice must take immediate steps to add satellite capacity. This capacity must be added in Star Choice’s own DTH neighbourhood (107.3º and 111.1º W), so that it can continue to provide services to customers via a single small dish. Star Choice would be prejudiced significantly in today’s competitive marketplace if it required customers to buy two dishes or to replace their existing dishes with new, larger dishes to access satellites located in different orbital neighbourhoods. This is particularly the case in today’s economic climate in which consumers are highly cost-conscious, especially in the rural communities where most of Star Choice’s subscribers reside. The xKu band is the only viable solution for near-term DTH expansion by Star Choice’s DTH service. Use of this band would permit Star Choice to serve its customers using their existing small dishes – and only require changeover of a single electronic component (the Low Noise Block Downconverter, or “LNB”). - i - The xKu band is a logical and proven choice for DTH use. It has been extensively used for DTH around the world. xKu satellite technology is proven, available in large quantities and cost- effective. Similarly, customer premises equipment (“CPE”) is broadly available for use in the band now. As a significant added benefit to the Canadian broadcasting system, a new xKu satellite launched into Star Choice’s DTH neighbourhood can provide critical backup capability to Star Choice’s existing Ku-band DTH customers and SBS’s small cable delivery services. No other frequency bands provide a viable solution for near-term DTH expansion by Star Choice. The Ka band requires a high-powered and more expensive satellite, one that is optimally used in a spot beam configuration for services such as Internet access and local-into-local video services. It is not well-suited for single-beam national DTH coverage in a country as large as Canada, which is 20º wider in longitude than the continental United States. The RDBS band has good future potential, but its development for broadcasting services in North America will inevitably be delayed by regulatory uncertainty. Multiple competing U.S. and international filings for RDBS satellites have been made in the North American arc. Past experience indicates that it will take a considerable period of time for multilateral and bilateral negotiations to provide sufficient regulatory certainty to permit full commercial development of the RDBS orbital slots. The Broadcasting Act requires BDUs such as Star Choice to “provide efficient delivery of programming at affordable rates, using the most effective technologies available at a reasonable cost”. With this legislative mandate in mind, Telesat has completed an analysis that indicates that, given the existing Star Choice neighbourhood, an xKu-band satellite would be far more cost-effective than one utilizing the other bands that might be considered, namely the Ka and RDBS bands. The 11 GHz band is currently shared between FS and Fixed Satellite Service (“FSS”) users, with both theoretically having “co-primary” status in the band. However, this shared arrangement has been impractical for the FSS, and particularly for DTH use. As a result, there is little satellite use of the band today, notwithstanding satellite’s co-primary status. Telesat is therefore proposing a “soft” segmentation of the band: FSS use would have priority in the upper segments of the 11 GHZ band (the “xKu” band); FS use would have priority in the lower segments of the band, except that gateway earth stations for the Mobile Satellite Service (“MSS”) would continue to retain their co-primary rights. An important policy consideration related to granting priority use of the xKu band for DTH is the fact that some existing FS users of the band would have to be transferred to other bands or transmission modes. To address this matter, Telesat has commissioned a detailed study of existing FS use of the band (see attached report) which indicates that: there are relatively few licensed FS transmitters in the xKu bands; and there are good alternative frequency bands and other transmission options available for these FS transmitters; in particular, retuning xKu-band transmitters to the lower portion of the 11 GHz band, FS bands below 11 GHz, the 12.7, 15, 18 and 23 GHz bands and other microwave bands, and wireline alternatives, e.g. terrestrial fibre- optic networks, which can be more efficient and reliable. - ii - Telesat submits that it would be in the public interest to move the relatively small number of FS transmitters in the xKu band (425) to other bands and transmission options, in order to permit a large number of DTH subscribers (approaching one million) and cable subscribers (particularly 4.5 million subscribers in smaller communities) to have access to advanced Canadian multi- channel video services. Telesat and Star Choice have also examined the level of FS use of the xKu band in U.S. border areas and determined that it will have a negligible impact on DTH users in Canada. Thus Telesat does not believe bilateral negotiations with the United States are required to deal with potential cross-border interference issues in this band. For the reasons set out in these Comments, Telesat submits that the xKu band should be used primarily for DTH purposes. As anticipated in Industry Canada’s Consultation Paper, changes to the Department’s spectrum utilization policies will be required. The specific changes proposed by Telesat are spelled out in detail in these Comments. In summary: The 10.95-11.2 GHz and 11.45-11.7 GHz (xKu) portions of the 10.7-11.7 GHz band should be designated for priority use by the FSS to support provisioning of DTH and broadcast signal delivery services.